Pennsylvania Hemp Industry Council's Mission to Drive Investment
This week on the podcast we talk to the board of directors of the newly revamped Pennsylvania Hemp Industry Council.
Erica Stark, Lori Daytner, Cynthia Petrone-Hudock, Cameron McIntosh and Drew Oberholtzer are active business leaders and advocates for industrial hemp in Pennsylvania.
The council received $150,000 in grant money from the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture for Project Invest in PA Hemp, which aims to attract investment in the state\u2019s hemp sector.
Petrone-Hudock, co-owner of Hemp-Alternative in Chester County, said the grant seeks to increase customer awareness of agricultural products.
\u201cWe're going to shift our message away from investing in growing hemp, because we've sort of proven in the state that that can get done,\u201d she said, \u201cto investing in sustainable product development through the use of hemp.\u201d
Oberholtzer, co-founder of Coexist Build, a design firm with a line of hempcrete construction products, said the goal of the project is to develop and create a communication strategy that brings \u201cinvestment into Pennsylvania for Pennsylvania hemp companies, creating partnerships with public and private entities.\u201d
Daytner, vice president of program development at Don Services, the New Castle company that created the Project PA Hemp Home, said the scope of the new project involves education and outreach.
\u201cBut,\u201d she said, \u201cthere's also the financial and commercial side of it where investors may say, \u2018Oh yeah, this piques my interest,\u2019 but investors want numbers. They want an understanding of what's behind the opportunities that are here.\u201d
Petrone-Hudock said \u201cbuild demand, build demand, build demand\u201d is the key.
From a grain perspective, she said, \u201cwe need food ingredient suppliers, we need chefs, we need restaurant owners, we need local food networks to be in it, really embracing hemp. We need fabric dependent businesses to start looking at hemp as an alternative.
\u201cWe need builders and designers and architects, and we need homeowners to say, \u2018I want to live in an eco-friendly house that's going to be healthy for me.\u2019 Like the whole key here is what's healthy. And if you embed hemp in your lifestyle, you can't go wrong. And so I think it is sort of changing the message and the target, and continuing to build this demand at the consumer level.\u201d
McIntosh, owner of hempcrete construction company Americhanvre, is confident in the project and points to the Ag Department\u2019s support as a major factor in its success.
\u201cJust the fact that our Department of Agriculture is putting up this kind of money specifically for promotion of hemp products grown, manufactured and produced in Pennsylvania \u2014 that's success right there,\u201d he said.
Stark, PAHIC chair and executive director of the National Hemp Association, said the council is \u201cthe perfect vehicle to make sure that the positive impacts of all of the materials that are created through this grant continue to be implemented and used indefinitely, because our our mission and our goal is to have a robust and vital hemp industry here in PA.\u201d
Pennsylvania Hemp Industry Council
Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture's Hemp Program
https://www.agriculture.pa.gov/Plants_Land_Water/hemp/Pages/default.aspx
News Nuggets
Farmers March on Washington to Demand Climate Legislation
Pingree Introduces Bipartisan Bill to End Discriminatory Hemp Policy
https://pingree.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=4507
Why India is losing trillion-dollar hemp economy
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/blogs/voices/why-india-is-losing-trillion-dollar-hemp-economy/
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